Most of the news from New Orleans is bad

Louisiana, in its wisdom, does not license insurance adjusters; therefore, anyone off the street can take a quickie course, show up, and ruin your life. And that is exactly what is happening. An insurance adjuster called United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans today to say he had met some "adjusters" who had no idea how to measure a house; he had to show them. Two weeks ago, they were blackjack dealers in Mississippi. They took a six-day course to learn how to do the paperwork, and that was that. When he saw them, they had declared a house in New Orleans East that took four feet of water as "livable." This, they said, is what they had been instructed to do. Unless the windows were blown out, the house was to be declared livable.

A few streets in the Lakeview section of New Orleans sustained no Katrina damage--the rest are disasters, with houses completely demolished. But there are still some possessions to be retrieved by homeowners. At least there were--looters are helping themselves. And just in case you're wondering--these houses, unlike the ones in New Orleans East, are owned by white people. They are wondering where the law enforcement officers are (I know, I know--they're beating people up in the French Quarter).

Cleanup subcontractors in New Orleans are angry because their pay was arbitrarily docked and their retainer was cut in half by Slidell firm OMNI Pinnacle. They also say that OMNI Pinnacle officials refuse to address their concerns.

The good news is that half of the Twin Spans Bridge reconstruction was completed 17 days ahead of schedule, so people in Slidell can go back and forth to the city without backing up the Highway 11 bridge or using the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. The other half of the bridge will be completed some time in January.